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A bit further afield today, haven’t been to Blacktoft for a long time, and its started to be that time of year when waders start to return on their return migration, the other option was Frampton, but sadly that’s too far away.

Checked out the bird feeders on my way in, finding lots of Tree Sparrow’s, Blue Tit, Great Tit, and Chaffinch. So on to the reserve and I headed out to the first hide, Marshland, hoping for those waders. I spent a couple of hours in here, finding plenty of Green Sandpipers, young birds making up the numbers, there were also lots of Lapwing, a single Common Snipe, a single Spotted Redshank, which was playing hide and seek, a single Grey Heron and Little Egret, a pair of Juvenile Marsh Harriers, these kept visiting a few times, sometimes landing on the ground, giving good views. Over time I also managed to find Water Rail, Bearded Tit, Sedge Warbler, and Moorhen.

I was hoping for a busy day of waders today, but alas that wasn’t to be the case, it was also very quiet in the other hides, the only other highlights were a group of ten Little Egrets.

Insects of note were a few Red Admiral Butterflies, Common and Ruddy Darters, Blue tailed and Variable Damselflies and a Four banded Longhorn Beetle.

Bird List : Bearded Tit, Blackbird, Black headed Gull, Blue Tit, Carrion Crow, Coot, Gadwall, Great Tit, Green Sandpiper, Grey Heron, Greylag Goose, Lapwing, Little Egret, Little Grebe, Magpie, Mallard, Marsh Harrier, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Pochard, Sedge Warbler, Shelduck, Shoveler, Snipe, Teal, Tree Sparrow, Tufted Duck, Water Rail, Woodpigeon

Butterflies : Comma, Gatekeeper, Green veined White, Meadow Brown,

Dragonflies : Blue tailed Damselfly, Common Darter, Ruddy Darter, Variable Damselfly

Four Spotted Longhorn Beetle

Ruddy Darter

Variable Damselfly

Tree Sparrow

Little Egret

Another sunny day and another outing to Old Moor and of course todays targets were Damselflies and Dragonflies.

Same route, stopped at the Visitor Center pond first, to find Blue tailed Damselflies, Azure Damselflies and my first Male Emerald Damselfly of the year. On then to the stepping stones pond where there were a few Darters rushing around, these turned out to be Common and Ruddy Darters. The last pool over the bridge had, Common Blue Damselfly and a Brown Hawker, the hawker not settling at all.

I then made my way around to the Toyota pond, where there were a few Azure Damselflies, Red eyed Damselflies and quite a few Small Red eyed Damselflies.

After dinner, I did the Green Lane Loop, down here hanging out were, male and female Black tailed Skimmers, Emperor, Four spotted Chaser, I also called in the Wath Ings Hide to view the Spoonbill

A great day for Odonata, and a last my best haul in a day with twelve species

Other wildlife highlights were a quick Volucella inanis Hoverfly, a few butterfly species included Gatekeeper, Green veined White, Ringlet and what I think may be a Essex Skipper, but that needs clarifying

Damselfly/Dragonfly List ; Azure Damselfly, Black tailed Skimmer, Blue tailed Damselfly, Brown Hawker, Common Blue Damselfly, Common Darter, Emerald Damselfly, Emperor, Four spotted Chaser, Red eyed Damselfly, Ruddy Darter, Small Red eyed Damselfly

Black tailed Skimmer ♂

Volucella inanis

Essex Skipper (Accepted as correct on iRecord)

Small Red eyed Damselfly

Common Darter

Canada Goose

Emerald Damselfly ♂

We were back at Old Moor, however the weather didn’t look good for the Dragonfly hunt, it eventually turned out to be more of a bird day.

On site, I only managed to find Azure and Blue tailed Damselflies today, so it was around the various hides I travelled, for the various birdlife. The most productive area was the Tree Sparrow Farm with, Godfinch, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Blue Tit, Bullfinch and Chiffchaff.

There were eight Spoonbills and a single Little Ringed Plover at Wath Ings, Little Egret, Grey Heron and Lapwings on the Field Pools.

Greenfinch

Little Ringed Plover

Chaffinch

Chiffchaff

Blue tailed Damselfly

A bit of sunshine today, so I headed out to with the camera, and out to Bullcliffe NR. On arrival and walking around for a while, there wasn’t much flying today at all. I decided on another loop and came up with a few Ringlets, Meadow Browns and Small Skippers Butterflies.

I finally tracked down a Small Skipper that seemed to be staying in one area, got the seat out and settled in. The Small Skipper was definitely staying in this area, along with a Large Skipper, I spent some time taking photos of these two.

Other highlights were a Dagger Fly, Thick headed Fly [Sicus ferrugineus], and plenty of Common Red Soldier Beetles

Large Skipper

Small Skipper

Red Soldier Beetle

Thick headed Fly

A Retirement present from the guys I used to work, the Inspection Dept at a local Engineering Firm, today would be a new experience for me, may be the start of a new thing.

The day started early, I had to be on site for 7am,I live fairly local about thirty minutes away, so there wasn’t to damaging, the hide is in the area of RSPB St Aidan’s.

I arrived on time and met Ian, the owner, who took me down to the hide, which is near to the road. A large hide with three portals, all have gimbals to use, there’s also a couch and various equipment to use, if you’ve forgotten yours. The hide was overlooking a copse area, there are plenty of natural feeding areas, Posts, Trees and Branches etc.

After getting settled in, with Ian showing where things were, toilet manly, my attention turned to the birds, today I was shooting with the OM1 and the 150-400mm F4.5 Pro lens, I didn’t know which way to turn, there was plenty of action with Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long tailed Tit, Blackcap, Robin, Stock Dove, Woodpigeon, House Sparrow, Starling, Jay, Blackbird and Great Spotted Woodpecker.

A Kestrel flew thru at one point and a Sparrowhawk hung around in one of the nearby trees, not coming down. The most numerous birds were the young Starlings, along with Jays and Blackbird.

It was a great morning, lasting from 7am till 1pm, I did have a worrying moment at about 11:30am, my battery went flat, now I thought I’d charged both of them last night, I hadn’t, thankfully Ian came to the rescue with a power bank, plugged into the camera and we were rolling again, needless to say I have now bought my own power bank.

Overall today was a great experience and I will be re-booking, Ian was great couldn’t do enough for you, and was checking on me occasionally to see I was ok, any problems he’s just at the end of a phone. I found these hides a good places to try out new equipment, like cameras and lenses.

As I say I will be re-booking, I have a date with a Sparrowhawk.

A Video of the days experience can be seen by pressing HERE

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Blackbird

Starlings

Long tailed Tit

Jay